Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1868

Kirk Cameron Wants to Save Christmas, but He Can’t Even Save His Own Movie

This is the actual poster for Kirk Cameron‘s movie Saving Christmas:

It’s one of those cases where you can absolutely judge a book by its cover. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a pathetic score of 9%, with one critic saying it’s “one of the least artful holiday films ever made.” There’s also this takedown, which seems to perfectly encapsulate all things Cameron:

How do you prove a horse is an animal? Because I like Sweden. That’s the style of absurd logic that happens in “Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas”…

Bad, right?

Not to worry! Cameron, desperate for whatever attention he can get, asked his Facebook fans to change the ratings… which won’t actually work since the official Rotten Tomatoes score depends purely on “approved critics.”

All of you who love Saving Christmas — go rate it at Rotten Tomatoes right now and send the message to all the critics that WE decide what movies we want our families to see! If 2,000 of you (out of almost 2 million on this page) take a minute to rate Saving Christmas, it will give the film a huge boost and more will see it as a result!

I really don’t understand that bolded phrase — as if the low rating is part of some anti-Christian conspiracy. Cameron can’t accept that it just might be an awful film.

For what it’s worth, the movie made just under $1,000,000 at the box office last weekend. By way of comparison, God’s Not Dead, which opened in not even twice as many theaters, took in over $9,000,000 on opening weekend.

The “audience score” for Cameron’s movie — the one people can easily change — is currently at 50%. But if we’re all playing the adjustment game, why not fix that…

On a side note, a tomato is now the second edible object Cameron is now associated with. I’m open to thoughts on what the next one will be.

Egyptian Preacher/Doctor Acquitted After 12-Year-Old Patient Died During Alleged Genital Mutilation

Last summer, a botched operation took the life of a 12-year-old Egyptian girl by the name of Sohair al-Bata’a. The man responsible has nothing to worry about professionally or legally, though.

The first doctor to be brought to trial in Egypt on charges of female genital mutilation (FGM) has been acquitted, crushing hopes that the landmark verdict would discourage Egyptian doctors from conducting the endemic practice. Raslan Fadl, a doctor and Islamic preacher in the village of Agga, northern Egypt, was acquitted of mutilating Sohair al-Bata’a in June 2013. …

Sohair’s father, Mohamed al-Bata’a, was also acquitted of responsibility. Police and health officials testified that the child’s parents had admitted taking their daughter to Fadl’s clinic for the procedure.

The doctor/preacher denies that he performs FGMs (the practice was formally banned in 2008, though enforcement is rare), saying that his patient came to him to have a wart removed from her genital area; that he made just a tiny incision; and that the girl had died from an unfortunate allergy to penicillin.

Anyway, surely cutting girls’ genitals is not widespread in a modern country like Egypt, right?

According to surveys by Unicef, an estimated 91% of married Egyptian women aged between 15 and 49 have been subjected to FGM, 72% of them by doctors.

I wonder if Ben Affleck would call anyone who cites those statistics “gross” and “racist,” too.

In rural areas with a low standard of education, such as Sohair’s village of Diyarb Bektaris, FGM still attracts instinctive support from Muslims and Christians, who believe it decreases women’s appetite for adultery. …

“We circumcise all our children — they say it’s good for our girls,” Naga Shawky, a 40-year-old housewife, told the Guardian earlier this year. “The law won’t stop anything — the villagers will carry on. Our grandfathers did it and so shall we.”

Mostafa, a 65-year-old farmer, said he did not realize that FGM had been banned. “All the girls get circumcised. Is that not what’s supposed to happen?” he asked. “Our two daughters are circumcised. They’re married and when they have daughters we will have them circumcised as well. If you want to ban it properly, you’d have to ban doctors as well.”

Because logic.

And then there’s this:

Sohair’s grandmother, also named Sohair, admitted to the Guardian that an FGM procedure had occurred, but claimed her death was “what God ordered.”

God is so great, isn’t he?

Texas Board of Education Approves Textbooks That Say Moses Influenced the Writing of the Constitution

Just days after the Texas State Board of Education decided to delay a vote to approve textbooks full of revisionist history, they went ahead and voted to approve them. It was a 10-5 vote down party lines. (You can guess which party the 10 belong to.)

While some of the most egregious problems were removed from the adopted textbooks, not everything was fixed. The Texas Freedom Network points out:

… the new textbooks also include passages that suggest Moses influenced the writing of the Constitution and that the roots of democracy can be found in the Old Testament. Scholars from across the country have said such claims are inaccurate and mislead students about the historical record.

Have fun failing those introductory history classes in college, Texas high schoolers.

(via Right Wing Watch. Image via Shutterstock)

Family of Five Killed, Now “Enjoying an Even Happier Place” than Disney World

Two days ago, a family from Texas suffered a horrific tragedy when a long-planned trip to Disney World ended in a fatal car crash in Louisiana. Five members died — two parents and three of their children.

Said the mother’s stepbrother:

“En route, God had other plans as five members of our family are now enjoying an even happier place.”

The day I read the story, I came across another one, from Puerto Rico, that also involved the violent death of multiple members of a family. A 13-year-old boy’s father, mother, grandmother, and older brother were ruthlessly shot in the head during a home invasion. The 13-year-old, pleading for mercy, was stabbed in the neck and left for dead, but he survived.

Said a police spokesman:

“It was a miracle from God that he is alive.”

I’m rarely tongue-tied, but nothing that flows out of my keyboard today quite encapsulates the strange mix of sorrow, vexation, and exasperation that’s come over me after reading these articles.

Help me out?

(Image via Shutterstock)

ESPN Suspends Baseball Writer Keith Law for Defending Evolution on Twitter

About a week ago, retired baseball star Curt Schilling took to Twitter to criticize, of all things, evolution:

It went on like that for a while.

One of the people responding to Schilling’s ignorant tweets was ESPN baseball writer — and therefore, Schilling’s work colleague — Keith Law:

At no point did Law say anything remotely offensive. But it didn’t matter. According to Deadspin, Law was suspended by his bosses and told to stay off Twitter, at least temporarily:

Heavy-tweetin’ ESPN baseball writer Keith Law has been noticeably silent for the last couple of days. That’s no coincidence — he’s been given a Twitter timeout by ESPN, and we’re told that it’s for loudly and repeatedly defending Charles Darwin from transitional fossil Curt Schilling, his Bristol colleague.

…

Law was ordered to stay off Twitter on Wednesday. A source tells us he’ll be allowed back on Twitter on Monday.

Cart Schilling, who also works for ESPN, has received no suspension. And he’s currently arguing against the protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.

As one Deadspin commenter notes, ESPN: “Evolving Species? Probably Not.”

This is the Fastest Way to Read the Bible

Redditor Cabbagetroll created a “too long; didn’t read” version of the Bible:

GENESIS
God: All right, you two, don’t do the one thing. Other than that, have fun.
Adam & Eve: Okay.
Satan: You should do the thing.
Adam & Eve: Okay.
God: What happened!?
Adam & Eve: We did the thing.
God: Guys

THE REST OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
God: You are my people, and you should not do the things.
People: We won’t do the things.
God: Good.
People: We did the things.
God: Guys

It goes on from there…

(via Kottke. Image via Shutterstock)

Atheist Rapper Gifted Anomaly Has a Song Out Called “Worship”

Gary Gibson, Jr. (a.k.a. Gifted Anomaly), who previously released hip-hop songs about atheism here and here, has a (possibly NSFW) song out called “Worship.” Check it out:

The lyrics are sharp, too:

… you just assumed your god is real is the picture you paint/ do your deepest thoughts ever center on if he ain’t/ if he didn’t create/ this universe then what would it take/ is it the devil or a better explanation for hate/ wait/ if he’s all good then why is there hate/

Want more? Like the Grand Unified Theory page on Facebook.

When It Comes to Pop Culture, There’s a Christian Version of Everything Secular

A couple of months ago, I saw Seth Andrews (The Thinking Atheist) give a talk on how Christians co-opt just about everything in secular culture. For every great musician, or book, or movie… or fast food logo… there’s a Christian equivalent.

I got his point after a few examples. But then he kept giving more. And they didn’t stop coming. The message was clear: There’s no bit of pop culture too irrelevant to turn into a promotion of Jesus:

If any examples stand out to you, leave them in the comments!

South Carolina Elementary School Fundraisers Benefit Local Church’s Mission Work

Oakbrook Elementary School in Summerville, South Carolina ran a teacher-led fundraiser recently with all proceeds supporting missions sponsored by the Old Fort Baptist Church:

The American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center sent a letter to the district yesterday:

The purpose of this letter is to advise you that such school-sponsored fundraising efforts — the proceeds of which go directly to an evangelical Christian Church — must immediately cease, and that our organization will pursue the matter through litigation in federal court if it does not.

…

None of this is to suggest that the School District should not be participating in charitable endeavors. To the contrary, the AHA strongly supports charity giving. Such good intentions, however, can be pursued in innumerable other ways that do not involve religion.

Another fundraiser being put on by the school involves a canned/boxed food drive. Those items will be donated to the church for its missions, too.

Some Christians will inevitably cry foul, but the moment a public school charity drive becomes a vehicle with which to spread the Gospel, it’s gone too far.

Pastor Says Florida School Board Should Say No to Atheist/Satanist Book Giveaways Since They’re Not “True Religions”

In a piece that’s light on facts and heavy on ignorance, Pastor Troy Schmidt writes that the Orange County School District should ban atheists and Satanists from distributing their books, but still allow Christians to give away Bibles.

He’s referring to the recent controversy where the district is considering banning all book distributions by outside groups because atheists want to participate and the Satanic Temple created coloring books for the occasion.

After claiming the coloring book mocks other beliefs — which it really doesn’t — Schmidt says this:

The Satanic Temple calls itself a religion. Pull it up on the Web, and see how comfortable you feel reading about its “benevolence and empathy” and “common sense and justice.” It’s Satan. He’s a deceiver. He’s about evil.

The Satanic Temple makes very clear they don’t actually believe in Satan. If it wasn’t for their name, you might mistake them for Secular Humanists. Their website is only scary if you have a visceral aversion to anything Satan-related.

Let’s use our own common sense. There is no Satanic Temple in our community; nor would we want it here. Neither The Satanic Temple nor the Freedom From Religion Foundation has any right being a part of Religious Freedom Day because neither are true religions.

Says him.

He’s wrong on a couple of counts, the first being that “Religious Freedom Day” matters. It doesn’t. The question is whether outside groups can ever do a book distribution and that’s the decision the school board needs to make. If they say yes to one, they must say yes to all, and they can’t discriminate based on which religions are their favorites — or which ones they consider real.

As for whether they’re true religions, all that matters is that the courts (in theory) treat all beliefs the same way. If it’s a firmly held belief, Satanism must be treated the same as Christianity.

I also wonder whether Schmidt would consider Islam or Scientology “true religions.”

So what’s his solution to this controversy?

There are two ways Satanists can win if their coloring books come to town — if the materials are allowed in the schools or if the day is canceled. That’s exactly the group’s motive. It wants one or the other. However, the community and students can win if the materials are rejected and Religious Freedom Day is allowed to stay.

If the atheist/Satanist materials are rejected, there will be a lawsuit. The school board will lose. And they will have to pay out a lot of money in legal fees. That’ll ultimately affect the community and the students. So Schmidt is just flat-out wrong there. (A pastor being illogical? Shocking, I know.)

He displays a stunning lack of awareness as to how the legal system works. If Religious Freedom Day remains in place, nothing will change. The issue isn’t that the books are being distributed on that day, but that they’re being distributed at all. I have a hunch that Schmidt wouldn’t be cool with the Satanist coloring book being handed out the following day, either.

By the way, if anyone wants to write an opinion piece, it looks like the Orlando Sentinel will print whatever drivel you come up with, regardless of how well-thought-out your argument is. So good luck getting published!

(Thanks to Bill for the link)